Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “
The Guelph Storm coaching alteration last week, caught me off guard.
Yes, Guelph is having a very un-Guelph-like season, but as far as I know, Bill Stewart is a coach, a successful coach, and guy who wants to coach, and so walking away seemed curious.
Almost as curious in Guelph is the number of coaches behind their bench.
In a quarter of a century, the following have coached the OHL entry at Guelph;
Ron Ivany, Mike Kelly & Bill LaForge in Year 1.
John Lovell for 2 years.
Followed in succession by Craig Hartsburg, E.J. McGuire, George Burnett, Geoff Ward and Paul Gillis, with only McGuire doing more than 1 year.
Jeff Jackson did 3 seasons and a bit before Shawn Camp took over
Dave Barr, who wanted to coach from the get-go, served for 4 seasons then, to bring us up to contemporary times, Jason Brooks, Mike Kelly briefly, Former Plater Scott Walker who co-owned while coaching, Bill Stewart and back to Mike Kelly for the moment.
So counting Mike Kelly’s 3 brief sessions as coach, that’s 18 coaching alterations at Guelph through the years.
And through the years, Guelph has been to the Memorial Cup 5 times; once as the host team, once as the OHL runner-up and 3 times as league champions.
Considering the frequency of coaching changes with the Storm, that level of success is remarkable.
I’m Fred Wallace